"I entered the same class as Brandt. When I first entered school, my comprehensive score was the first in the school, but only in terms of academic performance, Brandt is the first."
"I'm jealous of him."
"In several subject competitions, Brandt beat me and won the first place, but I often came in second. At that time, they laughed at me as the second child of Wannian."
"Since I was a child, I have been the pride of heaven. I never thought that one day I would be ridden on the head by a kid from the slums, and I would be ridiculed because of it. I was very upset."
"During the third year of high school, the school had a recommended spot for Y University, and I competed with Brandt."
"Later Brandt died..."
"As for me now, you can see. I'm at University Y. I went from undergraduate to PhD at University Y. I stayed at the university as a tutor and became a professor along the way."
"At that time, he was young and ignorant, and I killed him."
"I plead guilty and subdue the law. I wish one life for one life."
Clarence calmly narrated the past. In short, he killed his classmates because of conflicts in entering higher education.
This is so fucking weird!
This interrogation of Steve was still led by Arthur, which was so smooth that Arthur didn't believe what Clarence said at all. Clarence absolutely lied!
Arthur asked: "You killed your classmates just because of your studies? The motivation is not sufficient. I have inquired about you with your students, and they all said that you are a person who is very indifferent to career, and you don't even care about promotion. It’s the opposite of quick success.”
Clarence said: "Aren't the motivations for academic conflicts not enough? I think there are many such cases in the world, right? Besides, the present is the present, and the past was the past. It was because of Brandt's death that I began to look down on such cases. thing."
Arthur continued to ask: "With your family background and achievements, there is no need to fight for this spot."
Clarence said: "I just feel humiliated because I lost to a poor boy."
Arthur asked again: "Then how did you kill him? Why was Brandt at school that morning?"
Clarence said: "I asked him out. He was standing on the roof. I pushed him. Then I called the police. I was too scared. I pretended that I was the first person to find out about the case. You investigated me. , should know who my parents are, they settled this case for me."
Arthur: "And what about your alibi?"
Clarence: "My parents perjured me."
Arthur asked: "The scars on his body were also caused by you?"
Clarence nodded: "Yes, it's because of me."
Arthur got angry arguing with him, and simply took the photo of Brandt's autopsy in front of Clarence to compare several wounds: "What nonsense are you talking about? For example, these two wounds were caused at the same time. It is obvious that the maker of this injury was left-handed, and this one is right-handed, and there were several footprints on his body at that time, with different shoe sizes, could it be that you stepped on it with different shoes?"
Arthur looked up and saw Clarence staring blankly at the photo, his eyes gradually turning red.
Arthur was taken aback for a moment, and his expression softened involuntarily. The scene is also funny now. The suspect tried every means to wear the evidence on himself, but the investigators were defending his innocence.
Both the professor and the congressman are tough-talking, but they are at two extremes.
Arthur said calmly: "Professor Hall, I still don't quite understand why you took the blame. But the law is not a child's play, please respect the laws of the country."
Clarence lowered his head, and when he raised his head again, he was much calmer. He said, "I know, I have never flouted the law."
He said firmly: "I really feel that I killed Brandt."
Arthur: "..."
Clarence said again: "You can go to the school and ask about what I said. Everyone knows that Brandt and I are at odds."
He gave a low laugh: "We fought a few times and were almost punished."
Without Clarence's reminder, Arthur was also planning to go to school to verify.
Arthur had searched for Brandt's teachers when he was alive, etc., but unfortunately, several teachers who taught him at that time could not find any news, and the principal at that time died of illness a few years ago.
This is the difficulty of old cases, especially this kind of case twenty years ago, the witnesses are almost dead.
Alas, no matter what, let's go and ask on the spot, there will always be a few old staff.
Arthur actually found out that there are two employees in the school who have been working for more than 20 years, one is a female teacher who teaches music, and the other is a security guard.
The female teacher said reminiscently: "I once taught Brandt, and I still remember the first time he took my class. He couldn't play the piano or the violin, which made the classmates laugh at him, but Got snapped at by me. I consoled him privately and he didn't mind, told me he could play the guitar, said he liked the Beatles and I liked it too."
"He actually has a good voice. I once wanted him to be the lead singer of the choir, but he said he wanted to work part-time, so he didn't have time, haha."
Arthur didn't interrupt her, and waited for her memories to come to an end before asking: "Do you remember Clarence Hall? Are they on good terms?"
The female teacher said: "Of course I remember! They don't have a good relationship. There is only one number one. If someone is the number one, someone will be the second. I remember that the two of them took turns to be the number one in the school, or Bo Lan Or Te, or Klauer, they quarreled every time they met, and they often quarreled red-faced. In the first year, the two even had a big fight because of bickering. Brandt looked slender, but Klauer broke his head , His family can't afford the medical expenses, but Claure didn't make things difficult for him, he just asked him to go to the hospital to take care of himself for a week."
"I thought their relationship would get better after that time, but when they met again, they still quarreled once and for all. I couldn't understand what they were arguing about. Sometimes after school, I saw the two of them drawing pictures. There are numbers and letters on a blackboard, which I am most impatient with when I am reading, and it gives me a headache just looking at them.”
Arthur's pen froze for a moment, and then asked: "... Then, were they fighting for the recommended quota for Y University?"
The female teacher thought about it and nodded: "Yes. I remember that it was Brandt."
Arthur was in a complicated mood, and he couldn't tell what was wrong. He believed that Clarence was lying, but judging from the testimony of others, what he said was actually true. He felt like his brains were short-circuiting.
Steven glanced at Arthur, and asked the female teacher, "When was it decided? How long before Brandt died? Is there any change?"
The female teacher said: "In the last semester, there was an accident. A week before Brandt's death, his recommendation quota was cancelled. I don't know why."
"Back then... back then..." the female teacher frowned and recalled, "Back then, his recommendation quota was suddenly cancelled. I was also very surprised, and I asked a few colleagues, but they didn't know. Teacher Doug probably would I know, Brandt is his favorite student, I think he knows, he was hit hard after Brandt's death, and he resigned not long after. The principal must also know."
Steven asked, "What about Clarence Hall? Hasn't he been hit hard?"
The female teacher said: "I'm not sure. There were rumors at the time that he had something to do with Brandt's death. After Brandt's death, he didn't go to school again. The last time he came to school was to go through the transfer procedures. I saw him once. His expression seemed quite depressed, and I haven't seen him since then."
Steven asked: "When did he go through the transfer procedures, do you remember?"
The female teacher thought for a while: "Is it... more than a month after Brandt's death, maybe five or six weeks?"
Arthur frowned, and glanced at Steven.
At this time, it had been a while since Brandt's case had been closed as a suicide.
While waiting for the next witness, Arthur analyzed, "It doesn't make sense."
"If he was arrogant, couldn't tolerate Brandt winning against him, and deliberately planned to kill Brandt and pretend to commit suicide by pretending to be Brandt, why would he be hit because of Brandt's death? Even if he wanted to avoid the limelight Well, since Brandt had already closed the case at that time, why did he transfer to another school? It's completely wrong to fight for a place in Y after transferring to another school."
Steven: "The question is why Brandt was taken off the walk."
Arthur let out a "huh", rubbed his nose and thought for a while, but still had no clue, he asked abruptly, "Steven, even though she said that... Do you think the relationship between Brandt and Clarence is really bad?"
Steven shook his head: "I don't think so."
Arthur: "Me too..."
At this time, Grandpa Security, who has worked in the school for 40 years and will retire next year, came.
He should be of mixed race, of black descent, with a broad nose, thick lips, and a benevolent face. The security guards had already learned the purpose of their trip, and when they saw them, they said, "Are you here to investigate the case of Brandt?"
"I never believed he was a suicidal kid."
He said: "He was in a bad situation, the other kids looked down on him for being poor, they were always bullying him, breaking his locker, throwing his books in the trash, writing on his books and in his locker. He never gets discouraged when insulting him, and still has a pair of bright eyes."
"Well, it was just petty insults at first."
"By the end of the year, those bad boys got worse. I've seen them beat him up."
Arthur's eyes lit up: "Do you remember who they were?"
He couldn't bear to say: "I remember, I always remember. I should have said it back then, but I had a child to support at the time, and I couldn't lose this job."
Arthur: "Is that Ellen?"
The old man said: "He was involved, but he was coerced. He was a very timid child back then, and I saw him apologize to Brandt. It wasn't him who was the leader, it was Casey, Casey Charlie Elman."